Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-11
MOTHER MADISON
An interesting IersonoOe Who Lived to q
Great dye.

WI vi LxI WI llO UNA
An Interesting Iersonoge Who Lived to q
Great Aye.
Youths Compnnion.l
The mother of President Madison
lived to the great age of SO years.
From her marriage to her death she
resided at Montpelier, the ancestral
seat of the Madisons, o rowing, old
fashioned mansion in Virginia, filled
with the mementos of three or four gem
erations. This was her home in 1755,,
when Braddock's defeat filled the region
with panic-stricken fugitives, and there
she lived when her illustrious son re-
tired from the Presidency in 1917. She
was still in cheerful health when Gen.
Lafayette paid his respects to her in
1926.
After her husbands death, in 1901,
herson James, who inherited his fathers
landed estate, greatly enlarged the
mansion. but left the old part of it un-
altered and reserved it for the exclusive
use of his mother. He held her in the
deepest v%eneration, and studied her
comfort and preferences in all the ar
rangements of his house. She kept
her old servants about her, and lived
in all respects according to her own
fancy.
One aged negro man who had waited
upon her half a century, still refused,
at 80 years, when his head was crowned
with q halo of snowy hair, to give up
his place behind her chair. He some.
times slept upon the post of duty and
stumbled about the dining-room in an.
alarming manner.
Several negroes upon the estate were
older than Mother Madison; for SO she;
was called to distinguish her from the
wife of the President. When Gen. La
fayette was at Montpelier in 1926, he
loved to stroll to the cabin of Granny
Milly," aged 1O4 years, whose youngest
granddaughter was 70 years old.
Milly was a vigorous woman past SO.
when Lafayette chased Lord Cornwall
lis across Virginia during the Revolu-
tionary War, and there she was in ex-
cellent preservation when he returned
in 1925. He would come smiling to
the mansion house bringing in his hand
a fresh egg OF o bunch of flowers, the
gift of Granny Milly.
Mother Madison was an interesting
parsonage to tho visitors who frequented
the house. She had to the last her "
special garden, laid out in the formal
and angular plan of the olden time, and
cultivated by her WI gardener.
Nothing modern or novel was admit
ted to any portion of her domain. At 2
o'clock every day, when guests we're at
the house, she held a reception in her
quaint sitting-room, surrounded by rel
les of the time when George III. was
King.
She sat upon q couch placed in the
middle Of this large and comfortable
apartment, with a table at her side, on
which could always be seen her old
Bible and Prayer-book, the stay and
comfort of her age. On the same table
lay a number of pairs of gloves and
stockings, knitted by her own hands,
and marked with the name of favored
guests for whom she had made them.
Here she received her, company,
chatted with them pleasantly. and often
gave them gloves or stockings, as a
parting gift, from the great heap before
her. Thus Mother Madison is pictured
for us by one of her descendants, the.
author of the Memoirs of Dolly Mad:
ison."